Tool or Die, a Web Developer’s Workflow

“Tool and die makers are a class of machinists who work primarily in toolroom environments—…often in an environment with flexible, semipermeable boundaries from production work.”

These are the people that make the tools to make the products. This was the environment I grew up in—watching my father work as a tool and die maker. He could make anything! But more importantly, he knew the value of good tools—even if you had to construct them yourself.

Tools are important and tooling for Web Development is improving! I’ll go through a few of my favorites: Node.js, grunt.js, npm, yepnope, SASS, grunticon, Browser devtools, Testing tools, and others.

But You Don’t Have to Take My Word For It

Zach laid out his presentation in a unique way, relying totally on hand-made lean HTML markup that slowly blossomed as he walked us through topics. I really enjoyed this iterative and novel approach – it was the perfect choice for such a markup heavy session.